Anti-Water Charges' Five Now in Jail 13 Days

Free the Protestors - Jail the Bankers

The Government acting on behalf of corporate and financial power who have set their eyes on our Water have disgracefully jailed 5 citizens of this country because they said No to Austerity. We demand their freedom immediately. The five are: Derek Byrne, Bernie Hughes, Michael Batty who are imprisoned for 27 days and Paul Moore and Damien Oâ€™Neill who are imprisoned for 56 days.

There is clearly one law for the rich and one law for the rest of us. Where are the bankers and developers who bankrupted this country and led to widespread hardship and a huge increase in suicides in this country, deaths which have devastated families.
And what of the people who have died for lack of resources in our health system and of those evicted from their homes. It is time we stood up to this undemocractic sham and demand our country back from the claws of the elite.

Keep an eye out on social media and any websites related to the campaign against water charges for info on upcoming protests against the jailed 5.

Call-out for students for this autumn's MA in Community Education, Equality and Social Activism at Maynooth - please circulate!

We have a lot going on at the MA - a talk next week "Gypsy rebellion? Leadership, NGOs and activism among Spanish gitanos"; in April John Holloway is giving a two-day seminar "Think Hope, Think Crisis" and not long after that we're co-organising the "Joining the dots" Grassroots Gathering in Dublin - all part of a wider Dublin Spring of resistance and creation bubbling up from below.

Michael Hudson, interviewed on real news network discusses the class war starting in greece and the panic among the Euro rich and powerful that the rich might actually be taxed for a change rather than crippling the labour force and the poor with endless austerity, and how the finance ministers of currently right wing governments of spain, finland, Portugal, Ireland and germany are determined to make an example of greece to avoid contagion of these dangerous ideas which would likely lead to such governments losing upcoming elections to left wing parties read full story / add a comment

For years, a number of Irish movements have stood in solidarity with the struggle for justice, dignity, equality and freedom of the popular movements in Colombia. Now, hearing of the case of political persecution against the Water Rights movement, Colombian organisation have expressed their solidarity with the struggle of the Irish people. Peasant organisations of Cauca Valley and a broad coalition of over 50 organisations of indigenous, Afros, peasants, women and workers from the Southern jungle of Putumayo, together with refugees in Europe, have issued two statement expressing their unconditional support with those who struggle and reminding the government of Ireland of their obligation to respect the rights of the people in Ireland. read full story / add a comment

On Saturday 28 February the Progressive Film Club presents two film showings where admission is Free! They are in The New Theatre, 43 East Essex street, (in Temple Bar) Dublin 2

They are London is Burning at 2:30pm and The Apples of Golan at 3:30pm.

The Progressive Film Club are a voluntary organisation dedicated to showing progressive films from all over the world. Struggles for people’s rights, for the rights of workers, of immigrants, of women, for national liberation and for social justice are some of the themes of the outstanding films we have selected. Showings—usually one all-day show per month—are at the New Theatre in East Essex Street. read full story / add a comment

Shannonwatch are urging their supporters to come to Ennis District Court on Tuesday February 24th to support TDs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace who attempted to inspect a US military plane at Shannon last July. Their alleged offence is illegal entrance into a restricted area of the airport, and their action was in response to the failure of the authorities to inspect US aircraft at Shannon.

Shannonwatch have repeatedly called for an end to the US military use of Shannon. They also call for inspection of all military and suspected CIA aircraft at the airport for as long as they are being allowed to pass through. read full story / add a comment

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture have responded (today) to concerns raised by the Celtic League about arrests of children in dawn raids in Dublin recently. read full story / add a comment

The Anti-Austerity Alliance has today condemned the jailing of anti-water meter protestors at the behest of Denis O’Brien’s company GMC Sierra.

Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy said “The jailing of these protestors and the arrests in Tallaght is an attack on the right of communities to protest against the imposition of austerity measures, in this case the water charge and meters, which are being imposed by the government despite the massive opposition to them. read full story / add a comment

Just three weeks ago the National Transport Authority (NTA) officially started the tendering for 2016 of initially 10% of Dublin Bus routes and a further 10% of all Bus Eireann routes with most of the routes in Waterford City, and a number of Dublin commuter routes are to be privatised. In the original plan a number of Cork City routes were to go but these will probably happen later. This process has been the culmination of a relentless effort by Fine Gael (FG) in the present government and their predecessors and fellow Neo-Liberal ideologists, Fianna Fáil (FF) in the last government where they have consistently pushed for the break up of both Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann so that it can be handed over to their friends in the private sector to run on a profit basis. The NTA is used as a sort of cloak of respectability to give the impression that they will actually be a regulator with teeth of which we know very few regulators have any teeth, with the banking regulator during the Celtic Tiger coming to mind, plus many other examples and the function of NTA is really for propaganda value to convince the middle class. However this whole scheme is about ideology and is NOT about competition but about privatisation. read full story / add a comment

The Right2Water campaign is shocked by the jailing of five water protesters for contempt of court today (Thursday, 19th February). Bernie Hughes, Derek Byrne and Michael Batty were all sentenced to 28 days in prison while Paul Moore and Damien O’Neill were given 56 days each.

Right2Water representatives were in court for the sentencing, which they described as “an unnecessary and provocative decision brought about by an unfair water charge that has already been rejected and cannot work.” read full story / add a comment

A human rights lawyer who challenged the Costa Rican government on breaches of neutrality under its Constitution and won will speak at the Mechanics Institute in Limerick on Tuesday 24th Feb at 7pm.

Roberto Zamora works mostly on constitutional affairs and litigation for the protection of human rights. As a college student he challenged Costa Rican President Pacheco's decision to support the US/UK led aggression on Iraq. The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court ruled the support as unconstitutional, and ordered the country's withdrawal from the coalition. He also successfully challenged a presidential decision to allow the manufacture of nuclear fuel and nuclear reactors "for all purposes" in Costa Rica. read full story / add a comment

“No one deserves to live like this”
A poster I came across on a billboard recently, juxtaposed by the wasteland where one of our block of flats used to sit, where working class families used to live happily, side by side, before they were all socially cleansed from the area, and for what? Already a year has passed since they were pulled down to the ground, and all we have to show for it now is a lousy carpark—desperate!

Currently, there are over 80 unused empty units in Tom Kelly Flats, some of which have been empty for over five years or more, 3 and 4 bedroom flats too. read full story / add a comment

The courts decision today to further remand Seamus Daly into custody, based on the assertions by the prosecution that a further 6 weeks was needed to obtain analytics and perhaps up to a further 4 months to obtain other material from the 26 Counties can only be viewed as a stalling tactic and disingenuous. read full story / add a comment